The following article on IEP (Individualized Education Plan) aims to discuss its relevance to special education teachers based on my online participation of a seminar held in Manila conducted by the balikbayan Directress of Protégé Tutorial Center Mrs. Patricia G. Muñoz at 36 Xavierville Ave., Loyola Heights, Quezon City.
Thus, I would like to share her views on the subject matter with additional inputs from my own researches in the direction of enhancing the idea of IEP and its implication as a teaching strategy for a Special Education teacher like me.
The IEP is considered one of the most critical and proven elements in ensuring an effective teaching strategy and learning experience for children with ‘developmental delays’ and/or ‘challenges’ referring among many others to Down Syndrome, retardation, autism, ADHD – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, learning disabilities, and other forms of pervasive sensorial disorders).
In the United States according to Mrs. Muñoz, an IEP is federally funded and falls under the IDEA (Individual with Disabilities Education Act) which entitles each child to a FAPE (Free and Appropriated Public Education) designed to meet unique needs and prepare for employment and independent living.
Unfortunately, in the local scene we are nowhere near to the above educational infrastructure specially designed to meet the specific needs of the mentally, physically and socially-marginalized children.
May we recall that IEP was borne out of the social learning theory formulated by proponents of behavioral psychology (predating Pavlov, Skinner, Bandura, et. al.) as opposed to the nearly debunked psychodynamics of Freud and Jung’s variant in finding solutions to specific learning disabilities and behavior problems.
Contrary to the general practice in the Philippines, IEP as buzzword for a special teaching strategy borders on the theoretical, the nebulous and lip service even among practitioners. Technology transfer in this sense is sorely lacking.
This is compounded by the fact that our lawmakers who are just as ill-informed have lumped together special education needs of children with specific learning delays under the encompassing Magna Carta for Disabled Persons so that its implementation in the field of meeting the needs of special children with developmental delays has yet to see the light of day if at all.
Observe that LGU’s (Local Government Units) prefer to bank roll public funds for basketball courts, singing and beauty contests including gay pageants to headstart programs for slow-learners, economically-disadvantaged, children with pervasive disorders, developmental delays & the like.
Obviously, there is some form of deliberate and imposed “autism” (allow some euphemism here for the prevailing corrupt practices among LGU’s in the implementation of the law in issue) to look the other way from the more pressing concerns of implementing the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons specifically to children needing special kind of attention, care and education.
In the main, local experts of special education are sorely needed. But we have some names in the list like the Psychology Dep’t. chairman Dr. Alfredo Lagmay at the University of the Philippines in the late 80s who is credited for having pioneered in the direction of IEP and ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis). He had an advanced studies in Harvard University which he handed down to his students. Subjects on Behavior Modifications were offered and taught by Dr. Lagmay himself.
One private special education school in Quezon City which is at the forefront of providing professional services to all kinds of learning disabilities (including deaf and blindness) is St. Francis School – Very Special Arts Phil., Inc. under executive director Rebecca M. Santos who is also an expert in the expressive and theater arts for rehabilitation.
Now it can be told that the re-emergence of balikbayan education specialist Mrs. Muñoz in the country is just as auspicious coming in the nick of time for special education teachers as well as service providers (social workers, speech, physical, occupational, reading therapists and the like) of children with developmental delays who have long wanted to avail themselves of some doable hands-on experience in translating the technology of IEP to actual teaching practice or strategy in school and even out of it - in the community or homebound setting.
She is an added boost to the noble profession in search of more experts in the field of special education. She recalled that one turning point in her teaching career which inspired her to leave the country for advance training in and exposure to recent teaching strategies abroad was her experience in dealing with a child with autism in her regular pre-school class.
The encounter spurred her to investigate further the wired-up puzzles and the phenomenon behind the learning difficulties that special children suffer from.
Abroad, she was hooked on finding one of the most effective ways to strategize learning situations zeroing in on the science as well as art of putting to maximum advantage the technology of IEP. She trained and got fully credentialed in the State of California which equipped her to handle primary disabilities of autism, moderate to severe mental retardation, deaf-blindness, serious emotional disturbance, & multiple disabilities as well.
After about four years of experience in handling special children, Mrs. Muñoz decided to come home last year to share her expertise among handlers and parents of special children beginning in the Greater Manila Area and consequently to other regions of the country with the support and endorsement of government and private agencies.
She recalled having been called a ‘fool’ by her Pinoy colleagues and relatives abroad for her decision to go back to the country when most teachers from the Philippines would want to be part of the American Dream to become a well-paid teacher in America. To her the take on the greener pasture syndrome had to be relegated to the back seat in favor of a dream, however impossible it may seem.
A highly-disciplined vegetarian, Mrs. Muñoz would want to spend the remaining years of her life with the mission, among others, to put up a foundation and to network for the advancement of special education consciousness in the country.
In a manner of speaking, what she is doing now - sharing the latest educational technology with colleagues in the profession - is her way of giving a highly professional, visible face to her trailblazing advocacy which is to establish a federation of trained and professional special education advocates throughout the country with those in the same direction and commitment.
The education specialist has observed that most parents go through lengths to send their children with special needs to a special school, but most often the children don’t receive as much needed services in return. This is not far beyond the situation at present in which rehabilitation services remain a luxury to those who can well afford it and discriminating against those who can’t.
One long-term goal she has in mind is to put up a regional pilot center much like a self-sustaining vocational infrastructure in which students, trainees and graduates of special education from the primary up to the secondary level can avail themselves of the unique opportunity to be gainfully employed like what is being practiced abroad to develop their fullest potentials possible and empower them as well to measure up to society’s expectations for sustainable and independent living.
Mrs. Muñoz hopes that in her lifetime the playing field of community-based rehabilitation programs for children with developmental delays will get the sincere attention and unconditional support of funding agencies from both public and private sectors.
“As long as you keep up with your noble objectives and also keep your records transparent and accountable ‘angel benefactors’ will keep coming in to support,” the balikbayan educator enthuses. Mrs. Muñoz is positive that the opportunity in the direction will be equitable and accessible to everyone regardless of the kind of need or needs the special child may have at any given time and place.
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